After desperate two-year search for fugitive mom, dad reunited with son

A Danish dad has been reunited with his young son after an international manhunt for his ex-wife, a South African doctor, who disappeared without trace with the child 18 months ago.

Perseverance led a Durban private detective and a police officer to the woman and child in Port Edward, on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, a day after the little boy’s fifth birthday two weeks ago.

The father, who had previously secured an order in the Durban High Court for his son’s immediate return to the country of his birth under The Hague Convention, immediately hopped on a plane. Within hours of their meeting, the little boy asked him: “Can I hold your hand.”

He flew back to Denmark with his son the next day.

He told Sunday Times Daily on Friday: “He thrives really well with me and I see progress every day. He is a very intelligent boy who was quickly able to distinguish between the parental alienation his mother exposed him to and the reality that exists.  

“For more than two years my son has been brainwashed into believing I am a horrible person who has done horrible things to him, but it is clear that he is no longer marked by the fear of me that his mother has planted in him. 

“I am happy that my son now has a normal life, where he does not have to be on the run and where he can be with other children, in one of the safest countries in the world.”

The woman, whom social worker Kubesh Judy Reddy labelled an “obsessed alienator” in a report to the court,  spent more than a week in jail after she was discovered in Port Edward, where she was living with the child under assumed names. She has been released on bail and is facing charges of contempt of court. Sunday Times Daily was unable to contact the woman. Adv Jay Naidoo, who acted for her at her first court appearance after her arrest, said he was no longer representing her.

The father’s attorney, Benita Ardenbaum, said the drama began in September 2019 when the dad gave permission for his ex-wife to travel with their then three-year old child back to SA for 10 days to attend the funeral of a relative.

She soon told him she had no intention of returning to Denmark.

I was on high alert. I jumped up from my seat and chased after her, and just managed to stop her as she grabbed the child, who was outside the courtroom. She was either going to jump over the railings on the second floor or she intended running from the court to once again evade justice.

—  Attorney Benita Ardenbaum

He came to SA and secured the return order, judge Peter Olsen ordering that the ex-wife allow him access to the child before departure so the two could get reacquainted, in the presence of a social worker.

But she failed to comply. Facing contempt proceedings in early February 2020, she was instructed by the judge to immediately fetch the boy.

She left court and, until last week, could not be traced. While she was missing, the matter came before several Durban high court judges.

One, Rashid Vahed, declared her a fugitive from justice and directed the police to list and circulate his ex-wife’s name on the national criminal record system, use all technology available to find her and bring her to court to explain why she should not go to jail for defying court orders.

Ardenbaum said Alan Carey, the private investigator, and the investigating officer, Sgt Thubelihle Mhlongo, had followed up on many leads, but the woman and her relatives constantly changed cellphone numbers and stopped using their bank accounts.

On the eve of the little boy’s birthday on August 11, Carey was alerted that the grandmother was purchasing toys. He and the investigating officer then followed her down the south coast, where they located the woman and child staying in a private hotel. She was arrested. Ardenbaum immediately launched a high court application to have the child placed in the care of the social worker pending the arrival of the father the next day.

Ardenbaum said during the proceedings before judge Olsen the woman got up and bolted out of the courtroom.

“I was on high alert. I jumped up from my seat and chased after her, and just managed to stop her as she grabbed the child, who was outside the courtroom. She was either going to jump over the railings on the second floor or she intended running from the court to once again evade justice,” she said.

“Fortunately she was detained by the police and held in another court while the proceedings continued”.

Judge Olsen temporarily suspended her parental rights and responsibilities, interdicted her or her relatives from any direct or indirect contact with the child and placed him in the temporary care of the social worker, appointed by the family advocate, at an undisclosed venue, with a police guard, until the father arrived and saw his child for the first time in about two years.

Should she wish to have contact with her son, the mother will have to launch legal proceedings in Denmark.